r/CatastrophicFailure • u/freshmozart • 3d ago
Fire/Explosion Aftermath of the great fire of Hamburg, 1842, first photo of a catastrophe
A small fire broke out in a warehouse on the night of May 5, 1842. Strong winds, tightly packed timber buildings, and limited firefighting equipment turned it into one of the worst urban fires in European history.
Over the next three days, the fire destroyed around 1,700 buildings, including churches, homes and businesses. Roughly 20,000 people—about 10% of Hamburg's population at the time—were left homeless.
In a desperate attempt to stop the flames, authorities even blew up buildings to create firebreaks (f.e. the old 13th century city hall). It helped only after the wind finally eased.
The disaster reshaped Hamburg completely. The rebuilt city featured wider streets, improved fire safety, and modern infrastructure.
Casualties: 51 deaths
Buildings destroyed: ~1,700
Homeless: ~20,000
Cause: Warehouse fire + strong winds + densely packed wooden buildings = catastrophe.
The photograph was taken from the roof of the Hamburg Stock Exchange in the days following the fire to document the damage caused. The Stock Exchange was the only building to emerge from the fire unscathed, because some rich traders defended it against the fire. It's still operational.
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u/freshmozart 3d ago
As a last resort, artillerymen were ordered to fire their cannons at undamaged houses in order to bring them down.
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u/freshmozart 3d ago
The photo just shows a minor part of all the damage, but the whereabouts of all other photos from that day are unknown.
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u/Liesthroughisteeth 3d ago edited 3d ago
Imagine this happening twice, as Hamburgh was firebombed 101 years later (July 1943) by the allies in WWII
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u/Carighan 2d ago
Damn, unless I'm mistaked that's from roughly near Rathausmarkt looking towards the Binnenalster?
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u/freshmozart 2d ago
It's from the building behind the current day city hall. Yes, that's the Binnenalster in the background.
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u/freshmozart 3d ago
Rich people said "F**k the senate, let's blow up the city hall to save our stocks" 🤣
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u/halazos 2d ago
41 deaths? I really cannot believe this figure
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u/freshmozart 2d ago
51! That is the official number. The real number is unknown, but historians estimate it's equally low. The reason was that the fire was not fast and it was spotted very early, so people had enough time to get away. The rescue teams focused on getting people away quickly, because they initially had no permit to blow up buildings and they knew they had no proper equipment to fight the fire. That's why they focused on the things they can do.
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u/freshmozart 2d ago
Also the first Hamburg railways opening ceremony for the railway between Hamburg and Bergedorf was planned for the 7th of may, but due to the fire, rescue teams instead decided to use that railway for the evacuation. That railway played a major part in the evacuation too.
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u/sosodank 3d ago
Didn't seem to help much in 1944
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u/freshmozart 3d ago
Oh it helped alot because the Operation Gomorrha did not cause that much damage in the city center, compared to eastern city districts. Operation Gomorrha wiped out other city districts that where independent villages in 1842. Due to the rebuilding of the inner city after 1842 with fire safety in mind, there was no firestorm during Operation Gomorrha in the inner city district. The firestorm only happend in the formerly independent eastern districts.
And Operation Gomorrha was in 1943.
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u/freshmozart 3d ago edited 3d ago
The fire in St Nicholas’ Church was so intense that the heavy brass bells melted completely. The molten brass then flowed out of the church through water spouts. Brass melts at about 940° Celsius. The bells hung 100m up in the air. That is wild.